guitarherofandomcom-20200222-history
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana (full name Carlos Augusto Alves Santana; born July 20, 1947, in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico) is a famous guitarist that is featured in Guitar Hero 5. He was ranked 15th best guitar player by Rolling Stone. In real life, he was famous through out the late 1960s to early 1970s for his mix of salsa, jazz, and rock. By the 1980s, his music continue to stay popular untill the 1990s, where he experienced a major decrease in his record sellings. By the late 1990s, he had returned to commercial success, much thanks to his duet with Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas in the smash hit "Smooth", featured in his 1999 album Supernatural. Biography Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. His father was a mariachi violinist, and Carlos learned to play the violin at age five and the guitar at age eight. Young Carlos was heavily influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana, the border city between Mexico and California, and then San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but joined his family in San Francisco later and graduated from Mission High School there in 1965. In San Francisco, the young guitarist got the chance to see his idols, most notably B.B. King, perform live. He was also introduced to a variety of new musical influences, including jazz, world music, and folk music, and witnessed the growing hippie movement centered in San Francisco in the 1960s. After several years spent working as a dishwasher in a diner and busking for spare change on the streets, Santana decided to become a full-time musician; in 1966, he formed the Santana Blues Band, with fellow street musicians David Brown and Gregg Rolie (bassist and keyboard player, respectively). With their highly original blend of Latin-infused rock, jazz, blues, salsa, and African rhythms, the band (which quickly became known simply as Santana) gained an immediate following on the San Francisco club scene. The band's early success, capped off by a memorable performance at Woodstock in 1969, led to a recording contract with Columbia Records, then run by Clive Davis. Spiritual journey In 1972, Santana became a huge fan of the pioneering fusion band The Mahavishnu Orchestra and its guitarist John McLaughlin. Aware of Santana's interest in meditation, McLaughlin introduced Santana and Deborah to his guru, Sri Chinmoy. Chinmoy accepted them as disciples in 1973. Santana was given the name "Devadip" - meaning "The lamp, light and eye of God". Santana and McLaughlin recorded an album together, Love Devotion Surrender, with members of Santana and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, along with percussionist Don Alias and organist Larry Young, who both had made appearances on Miles Davis' classic album Bitches Brew in 1969. In 1973, Santana, having obtained legal rights to the band's name, formed a new version of Santana, with Armando Peraza and Chepito Areas on percussion, Doug Rauch on bass, Michael Shrieve on drums, and Tom Coster and Richard Kermode on keyboards. Santana was later able to recruit jazz vocalist Leon Thomas for a tour of Japan, which was recorded for the live, sprawling, high-energy fusion album Lotus. CBS records would not allow its release unless the material was condensed. Santana did not agree to those terms, and the album was available in the U.S. only as an expensive, imported, three-record set. The group later went into the studio and recorded Welcome, which further reflected Santana's interests in jazz fusion and his commitment to the spiritual life of Sri Chinmoy. Santana claimed to become a born-again Christian (date unknown) and produced an album in 1992, with songs about Jesus Christ, called Milagro. In 2008 he told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview that he would hear Jesus' voice comforting him when he was becoming suicidal. Shifting styles in the 1970s A collaboration with John Coltrane's widow, Alice Coltrane, called Illuminations, followed. The album delved into avant-garde esoteric free jazz, Eastern Indian and classical influences with other ex-Miles Davis sidemen Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland. Soon after, Santana replaced his band members again. This time Kermode, Thomas and Rauch departed from the group and were replaced by vocalist Leon Patillo (later a successful Contemporary Christian artist) and returning bassist David Brown. He also recruited soprano saxophonist, Jules Broussard to the lineup. The band recorded one studio album, Borboletta ("Butterfly"), which was released in 1974. Drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancler later joined the band as a replacement for Michael Shrieve, who left to pursue a solo career. For a time, he employed the services of famed Jaco Pastorious on bass guitar who added more of a funk groove to his newer jazz sound. By this time, the Bill Graham's management company had assumed the affairs of the group. Graham was critical of Santana's direction into jazz and felt he needed to concentrate on getting Santana back into the charts with the edgy, street-wise ethnic sound that had made them famous. Santana himself was seeing that the group's direction was alienating many fans. Although the albums and performances were given good reviews by critics in jazz and jazz fusion circles, sales had plummeted. Santana along with Tom Coster, producer David Rubinson, and Chandler formed yet another version of Santana, adding vocalist Greg Walker. The 1976 album Amigos ("Friends"), which featured the songs "Dance, Sister, Dance" and "Let It Shine", had a strong funk and Latin sound. The album also received considerable airplay on FM album-oriented rock stations with the instrumental "Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile)" and re-introduced Santana to the charts. Rolling Stone ran a second cover story on Santana entitled "Santana Comes Home". The albums conceived through the late 1970s followed the same formula, although with several lineup changes. Among the personnel who came and left the band was percussionist Raul Rekow, who joined in early 1977 and remains to this day. Most-notable of the band's commercial efforts of this era was a version of the 1960s Zombies hit, "She's Not There", on the 1977 album Moonflower. The relative success of the band's albums in this era allowed Santana to pursue a solo career funded by CBS. First, Oneness: Silver Dreams, Golden Reality in 1979 and The Swing of Delight in 1980, which featured some of his musical heroes: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams from Miles Davis' legendary 1960s quintet. The pressures and temptations of being a high-profile rock musician and requisites of the spiritual lifestyle which guru Sri Chinmoy and his followers demanded, were great sources of conflict to Santana's lifestyle and marriage. He was becoming increasingly disillusioned with what he thought was Chinmoy's often-unreasonable rules imposed on his life, in particular, his refusal to allow Santana and Deborah to start a family. He felt too that his fame was being used to increase the guru's visibility. Santana and Deborah eventually ended their relationship with Chinmoy in 1982. The 1980s More radio-pleasing singles followed from Santana and the band. "Winning" in 1981 and "Hold On" (a remake of Canadian artist Ian Thomas' song) in 1982 both reached the top twenty. After his break with Sri Chinmoy, Santana went into the studio to record another solo album with Keith Olson and legendary R&B producer Jerry Wexler. The 1983 album revisited Santana's early musical experiences in Tijuana with Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" and the title cut, Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon". The album's guests included Booker T. Jones (of funk band Booker T. and the MG's), The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Willie Nelson and even Santana's father's mariachi orchestra. Santana again paid tribute to his early rock roots by doing the film score to La Bamba, which was based on the tragically short life of rock and roll legend Ritchie Valens and starred Lou Diamond Phillips (and from whose soundtrack another song was pulled into the Guitar Hero series, this being Los Lobos' version of Valens' megahit "La Bamba"). Although the band had concentrated on trying to produce albums with commercial appeal during the 1980s, changing tastes in popular culture began to reflect in the band's sagging record sales of their latest effort, Beyond Appearances. In 1985, Bill Graham had to once again pull strings for Santana to convince principal Live Aid concert organizer Bob Geldof to allow the band to appear at the festival. The group's high-energy performance proved why they were still a top concert draw the world over despite their poor performance on the charts. Personally, Santana retained a great deal of respect in both jazz and rock circles, with Prince and guitarist Kirk Hammett of Metallica citing him as an influence. The band Santana returned in 1986 with a new album, Freedom. Buddy Miles, who was trying to revive his music career after spending much of the late 1970s and early 1980s incarcerated for drug charges, returned for lead vocals. His onstage presence provided a dose of charisma to the show; but, once again, the sales of the album fell flat. Growing weary of trying to appease record company executives with formulaic hit records, Santana took great pleasure in jamming and making guest appearances with notables such as the jazz fusion group Weather Report, jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, blues legend John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, and Malian singer Salif Keita. He and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart later recorded and performed with Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, who conceived one of Santana's famous 1960s drum jams, "Jingo". In 1988, Santana organized a reunion with past members from the Santana band for a series of concert dates. CBS records released a 20-year retrospective of the band's accomplishments with Viva Santana. That same year Santana formed an all-instrumental group featuring jazz legend Wayne Shorter on tenor and soprano sax. The group also included Patrice Rushen on keyboards, Alphonso Johnson on bass, Armando Peraza and Chepito Areas on percussion, and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler on drums. They toured briefly and received much acclaim from the music press, who compared the effort with the era of Caravanserai. Santana released another solo record, Blues for Salvador, which won a Grammy Award for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance". In 1990, Santana left Columbia Records after 22 years and signed with Polygram. The following year, he made a guest appearance on Ottmar Liebert's album Solo Para Ti ("Only for You"), on the songs "Reaching out 2 U" and on a cover of his own song, "Samba Pa Ti". In 1992, Santana hired jam band Phish as his opening act. He remains close to the band today, especially to guitarist Trey Anastasio. Return to commercial success Santana's record sales in the 1990s were very low. Toward the end of the decade he was without a contract. However, Arista Records' Clive Davis, who had worked with Santana at Columbia Records, signed him and encouraged him to record a star-studded album with mostly younger artists. The result was 1999's Supernatural, which included collaborations with Everlast ("Put Your Lights On"), Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty ("Smooth"), Eric Clapton ("The Calling"), Lauryn Hill ("Do You Like the Way"), Wyclef Jean (songwriter and producer for "Maria Maria"), Cee-Lo Green ("Do You Like the Way"), Maná ("Corazón Espinado"), Dave Matthews ("Love of My Life"), K. C. Porter (songwriter and producer for "El Farol" and "Primavera"), J. B. Eckl (associate producer in the same tracks), and others. However, the lead single was what grabbed the attention of both fans and the music industry. "Smooth", a dynamic cha-cha stop-start number co-written and sung by Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, was laced throughout with Santana's guitar fills and runs. The track's energy was immediately apparent on radio, and it was played on a wide variety of station formats. "Smooth" spent 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming in the process the last #1 single of the 1990s. The music video, set on a hot barrio street, was also very popular. Supernatural reached number one on the US album charts and the follow-up single, "Maria Maria", featuring the R&B duo The Product G&B, also hit number one, spending ten weeks there in the spring of 2000. Supernatural eventually sold over 15 million copies in the United States, making it Santana's biggest sales success by far. Supernatural won nine Grammy Awards (eight for Santana personally), including "Album of the Year", "Record of the Year" for "Smooth", and "Song of the Year" for Thomas and Itaal Shur (who wrote "Smooth"). Santana's acceptance speeches described his feelings about music's place in one's spiritual existence. In 2001, Santana's guitar skills were featured in Michael Jackson's song "Whatever Happens", from his last studio album, Invincible. In 2002, Santana released Shaman, revisiting the Supernatural format of guest artists including P.O.D. ("America") and Seal ("You Are My Kind"). Although the album was not the runaway success its predecessor had been, it produced two radio-friendly hits. "The Game of Love", featuring Arizona country/pop singer Michelle Branch, rose to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent many weeks at the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and "Why Don't You & I", written by and featuring Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger (the original and a remix, with Alex Band from The Calling instead of Kroeger, were combined towards chart performance) which reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. "The Game of Love" went on to win the Grammy Award for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals". In August 2003, Santana was named 15th on Rolling Stone magazine's "List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2005, Herbie Hancock approached Santana to collaborate on an album again using the Supernatural formula. Possibilities was released on August 30, 2005, featuring Carlos Santana and Beninese pop singer Angélique Kidjo (who had previously composed the opening track of Shaman, "Adouma") on "Safiatou". Also, in 2005, fellow Latin popstar Shakira invited Santana to play the guitar ballad "Illegal" on the Colombian singer's second English-language studio album, Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Santana's 2005 album All That I Am, following the format of Supernatural and Shaman, consisted primarily of collaborations with other artists; the first single, the peppy "I'm Feeling You", was again with Michelle Branch, now with her supporting band, The Wreckers. Other musicians joining the mix this time included Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler ("Just Feel Better"), Kirk Hammett ("Trinity"), dancehall star Sean Paul and R&B singer Joss Stone (both in "Cry Baby Cry"). In April and May 2006, Santana toured Europe, where he promoted his son Salvador Santana's band as his opening act. In 2007, Santana appeared, along with Sheila E. and José Feliciano, on Gloria Estefan's album 90 Millas ("90 Miles"), on the single "No Llores" ("Don't Cry"). He also teamed up again with Chad Kroeger for his hit single "Into the Night". On October 19, his wife of 34 years, Deborah, filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences". In 2008, Santana started working with his long-time friend, Marcelo Vieira, on his solo album Marcelo Vieira's Acoustic Sounds, which is due to be released at the end of the year. It features tracks such as "For Flavia" and "Across the Grave", the later featuring heavy melodic riffs by Santana. Carlos Santana performed at the 2009 American Idol Finale with the top 13 finalists, which starred many acts such as KISS, Queen + Paul Rodgers and Rod Stewart. On July 8 2009, Carlos Santana appeared at the Athens Olympic Stadium in Greece with his 10-member all-star band as part of his Supernatural Santana - A Trip through the Hits European tour. On July 10, 2009, he also appeared at Philip II Stadium in Skopje, Macedonia. With a 150-minute concert and 20,000 attendees, Santana appeared for the first time in Eastern Europe. Carlos has recently opened a chain of upscale Mexican restaurants called "Maria Maria". It is a combined effort with renown Chef Roberto Santibanez. They are located in Tempe, AZ, Mill Valley & Walnut Creek, CA, and, Austin TX, and soon to Boca Raton, FL. His debut album was recently re-released as part of the box set The Woodstock Experience, commemorative of the Woodstock Festival's 40th anniversary, which comprised also by the 1969 studio albums by Janis Joplin (I Got dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!), Jefferson Airplane (Volunteers), Johnny Winter (self-titled) and funk band Sly & the Family Stone (Stand!), as well as the live performances of all five performers in the festival. Guitar Hero 5 "Hi. I'm Carlos Santana"- Discography The list covers both albums recorded with the Santana band and Santana's own albums. :Santana (studio, 1969) :Abraxas (studio, 1970) :Santana III (studio, 1971) :Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live! (live, 1972) :Caravanserai (studio, 1972) :Love Devotion Surrender (studio, 1973; with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra) :Welcome (studio, 1973) :Lotus (live, 1974) :Illuminations (studio, 1974; with Alice Coltrane) :Borboletta (studio, 1974) :Amigos (studio, 1976) :Festival (studio, 1977) :Moonflower (studio/live, 1977) :Inner Secrets (studio, 1978) :Oneness: Silver Dreams, Golden Reality (studio, 1979) :Marathon (studio, 1979) :The Swing of Delight (studio, 1980) :Zebop! (studio, 1981) :Shangó (studio, 1982) :Havana Moon (studio, 1983; with Booker T. Jones, Willie Nelson, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds) :Beyond Appearances (studio, 1985) :Freedom (studio, 1987) :Blues for Salvador (studio, 1987) :Spirits Dancing in the Flesh (studio, 1990) :Milagro (studio, 1992) :Sacred Fire: Live in South America (live, 1993) :Santana Brothers (studio, 1994; with Jorge Santana and Carlos Hernandez) :Live at the Fillmore '68 (live, 1997) :Supernatural (studio, 1999) :Shaman (studio, 2002) :Carlos Santana Live (live, 2004) :All That I Am (studio, 2005) :Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter - Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1988 (live, 2007) :The Woodstock Experience (live, 2009 - part of a package with concerts at the 1969 Woodstock festival, which contains also live records of Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane and Johnny Winter) :Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time (studio/covers, 2010) :Shape Shifter (studio, 2013) Songs in the Guitar Hero series *''Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock: "Black Magic Woman" (from ''Abraxas) *''Guitar Hero 5: "No One to Depend On (Live)" (originally from ''Santana III, this live version is the one heard in Sacred Fire: Live in South America) Category:Characters Category:Real Life Musician Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Characters from Guitar Hero III: Ledgends of Rock